News - If the Dancer Dances

It's all about doing what it takes to keep the dance alive in a new documentary coming to Raindance Film Festival at the end of the month... 

Unlike a painting, dance exists only in the moment. If a dance is not danced, it vanishes.

Starring the Stephen Petronio Company and members of the former Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the documentary If the Dancer Dances brings viewers into the intimate and tactile world of the dance studio, as a group of New York’s top modern dancers struggle to reconstruct an iconic work by the legendary dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Timed to coincide with Cunningham’s centennial, the film tracks the dancers’ often intensely personal challenges, as they reveal what it takes to keep a dance alive.

If the Dancer Dances is the first documentary on the subject of Cunningham’s work since his death in 2009. Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov said, “If the Dancer Dances grants us rare access, bringing us into the studio to watch the staging of a Merce Cunningham masterwork on the Stephen Petronio Company. It’s the tracking of this intimate process, a dance being passed one body to another, that makes this film a great gift.”

Watch the trailer

Coming to Raindance Film Festival on Sunday 30th September at 20:00, and again on Monday 1st October 12:30, you can find out more and book tickets (HERE)

Images - used with permission